Akali - the Fist of the Shadow
Overview Akali is a melee assassin that, as a ninja, uses Energy as her primary resource. She's well equipped for dashing into a fight, taking out a single target, and keeping herself relatively safe. Ranking Skills Her skills are pretty straight-forward. Her Q should be the primary source of damage, giving her an easy way to harass in-lane and letting her do significant damage to anyone who get within melee range. If she's facing a lot of harassment, this also allows her to last-hit with relative safety. Whether taken at level 2 or 4, Akali's W is one of those one-point-wonder skills. The duration of her stealth shroud remains constant from levels 1 to 5 and the bonus slow and armor/MR aren't worth the levels. Once taken, don't forget to actually drop the shroud once you engage someone. Staggering your attacks and spells while in the shroud can also make it very difficult for enemies to fight back; consider that instead of simply going all-out once you get within range of someone. Probably the second of her basic skills to max, Akali's E can do good damage, but needs a hybrid build to really get going, and those are expensive. Investing points into her E before actually getting geared will mean your damage isn't as high as it could be. That said, it is a good tool for farming. Max her R when you can. Make sure to keep an eye on how many charges you have while fighting an enemy. It's easy to burn through them all and then not be able to chase. Something to keep in mind, if you're chasing someone and have a charge, but all your skills are on cooldown, it will probably be worth it to wait until your skills are up before dashing. Don't just dash because you can. Good Gear With Akali's passive, it's a good idea to start with +10 AD. That can be gotten pretty easily through runes and masteries or starting with a Longsword or Dorin's Blade. The point is to activate the 10% spell vamp off of her passive. This gives her decent sustainability in lane. There are two commonly used approaches for Akali. The first is hybrid and the second is straight AP. While you probably could do a straight AD build, AP sees better damage across her abilities and her passive means that even AP keeps her auto-attack on-par. AP items also allow her to build with a little more survivability than AD items would. For hybrid, grab a Rageblade and a Gunblade. After that, something with some survivability, like a Crystal Scpeter and then something defensive Guardian Angel or Banshee's Veil. For straight AP, Deathcap and something with decent AP. Will of the Ancients isn't the worst choice -- don't pay for it if no one else on your team will get use out of the aura -- and Void Staff is good. Like above, grab a Crystal Scepter for some beefy-ness and then grab a defensive item. Boots are flexible. Merc Treads are preferred, but if the enemy team is light on CC, then Sorc Shoes or Lucidity will work just fine. Playing In the laning phase, Akali can afford to spam harass pretty well thanks to her having Energy. Her Q lets her nuke for a lot of damage, so guage how much the initial shot does and then decide whether or not you have the damage to finish them off. If you're laning on someone you can't harass or will simply out-damage you, focus on last hitting and grabbing a quick Blasting Wand or Pick Axe to give you the edge in the lane. Once team fights happen, Akali plays like any other assassin. Wait on the edges of the fight for your target to get into range. Don't waste cooldowns on a Tank or Bruiser when you know there's a Ranged DPS or Support not far away. Akali's first target should be the enemy's carry, neutralizing as much of the other team's damage output as possible. Category:Assassin Category:Melee Category:Energy